


Dream a Little Dream

by bi_leigh_bi



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Bad Dreams, Comfort, Found Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27531484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bi_leigh_bi/pseuds/bi_leigh_bi
Summary: One can’t live through so many lifetimes and not have nightmares.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 4
Kudos: 87





	Dream a Little Dream

They’ve lived so many lifetimes they’ve stopped counting. They fought battles, wars, they’ve smuggled survivors of war across enemy lines and across borders into safety. They’ve been guns for hire. They’ve chosen the wrong side, the wrong cause. They’ve seen the worst of torture and murder and loss. They’ve survived natural disasters. And man made ones.

They’ve survived.

They’ve survived and survived and survived. 

It isn’t surprising at all really that surviving haunts them sometimes. That even as they lay twined together, safe, the past sometimes twists into their sleep to choke them. 

Joe is dreaming of... it doesn’t matter. The places blur together. The time, the place, the why. It’s all one thing now. He can’t breath. He’s trapped. He was buried in a mudslide for three days once. He’d lost count of how many times he died in the dark and the cold, the wet mud. There had been a branch through his thigh, the wound incapable of healing. His dream is something like that. Maybe it’s exactly that. It doesn’t matter. 

He screams, knowing no one can hear him. There’s mud, blood, ether- who knows, it doesn’t matter, he can’t breathe- in his mouth and down his throat. He’s suffocating. But he still tries to scream. For Nicky. For Andy. For Nicky again and again and again. 

He’s screaming when he’s jerked awake and up into Nicky’s arms. He’s clinging before he even realizes he’s awake. Grasping at Nicky, all but climbing into his lap. Desperate, terrified. Nicky holds him tight, large fingers spread across his back. Voice soft in his ear. He was never going to hear him again, never feel him or see him. He knew it. He’d been sure. But here he was. Nicky’s arms around him. 

”It was a dream, only a dream, my love. Just a dream. It wasn’t real.”

”Joe? Nicky? Nicky, is he-?” Nile’s voice. And then Andy. “Nicky?”

”Just a dream,” Nicky says, louder this time. So they all hear it. 

There’s quiet. And in the quiet Joe begins to remember where he is. When he is. That they are safe, laying low while the chaos over Merrick’s death dies down. They are safe. He is not buried alive. He isn’t being tortured. They are all free and safe. 

The bed dips. He doesn’t lift his face from Nicky’s shoulder or move from where he is half laying in his lap. Nicky’s hold does not loosen. But a cool hand pushes his curls behind his ear as best they can be. Andromache’s voice is soft, speaking a language so old that only she and Nicky and himself know it anymore. Telling him he’s okay. 

The floor creaks, another hand on him, warm, curling against his bare shoulder. Slightly hesitant before it’s sure and steady there.

”It’s alright, man,” Nile says softly, crouched beside the bed. “We’re good. I mean, might have just died from my first heart attack, but we’re good.”

For a while they stay. He wishes he could thank them. Wishes he could articulate. Wishes he had his words. But he can’t quite manage that yet. He hopes they understand how much he loves them. How much it means to hear them offer comfort. To feel their touch. 

When they leave Nile squeezes his shoulder and says something softly to Nicky. Andromache presses a kiss to his temple and he can feel her stretch to give the same to Nicky. It is still many long moments before he loosens his hold on Nicky. Nicky breathes in deeply and begins to rub his back. 

”It’s been quite a while,” Nicky says finally. “Since you had such a bad night terror.” He’s quiet for a few moments and then, “what was it?”

”The landslide,” Joe answers finally, word thick on his tongue. “Those three days-“

”Three of the worst days of our many days,” Nicky finishes softly. “So many times I feared it would be as with Quyhn and Andromache. That I had lost you forever, knowing you would suffer again and again. And then finally... finally. I found you.” Nicky pulls back so that Joe has to lift his head and look at him. “I found you.” 

Joe makes a choked noise and nods. “You found me.”

”I will always find you, Yusuf. Always.”

”It felt... I thought I was lost. In the dream. I couldn’t- I was lost to it.”

Nicky nods, waits. But Joe doesn’t know what else to say. It hadn’t just been the landslide. It had felt like so many times... so many deaths rolled into one. So many times he might have lost Nicky. Or been lost to him. 

He shifts in Nicky’s lap and letS his forehead rest against his. He closes his eyes and breathes him in. The smell of dark cold mud is gone. Replaced by Nicky’s aftershave and the soap they share. Just a dream. A memory mixed with a memory and more besides that. But not real, not now.

”It’s okay,” Nicky whispers. 

”I woke everyone,” Joe says back, voice as quiet. 

”I doubt Andy was sleeping and Nile did not seem overly bothered by it. She’s making us tea. If you want some.”

There is part of him that doesn’t want to move. That wants to cling to Nicky. To kiss him and touch him. And he thinks he’ll want that later too. That grounding connection. The one thing in a millennia that has always been home.

But it might be nice to have a cup of tea. To sit at the table with his family and remember that they are alive and free. 

”It would be nice,” he finally says. And Nicky kisses him softly, as if he knew that was exactly what he wants. “More of that after would be even better,” he says, smiling a little, finally. His chest feeling lighter.

“I will kiss you for as long as you need and desire,” Nicky promises. “For another millennia or more.”

”I love you,” Joe tells him, dark eyes serious and moving over his face, desperate for every living detail. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

”No more of these apologies.” Nicky kisses him again, humming against his lips. “They are not needed and not asked for. I love you. What is broken sleep compared to making sure you know you’re not alone.” 

Long fingers curl around the back of his neck and Joe let’s out a shuddering breath. His head drops to Nicky’s chest and he closes his eyes, breathing. Breathing. He could almost fall back asleep like this. Almost. But Nicky’s heartbeat is just a bit too fast, still startled. Nile and Andy’s voices are soft in the kitchen. The smell of Joe’s favorite tea steeping already fills the air. 

”Let’s get some tea,” Nicky murmurs. “Perhaps a hot bath after.” 

Joe makes a soft noise and relaxes entirely against Nicky. 

It sounds... like exactly what he needs. 

”Please.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt. Jolting awake from a nightmare and being comforted.


End file.
